Todd Porter: Edwards shows he's a true hero

Monday

Sometimes in the middle of life and football, between touchdown passes and heart-breaking losses, our heroes really do become our heroes.

Sometimes in the middle of life and football, between touchdown passes and heart-breaking losses, our heroes really do become our heroes.

Braylon Edwards looked like a guy who jumps over tall NFL cornerback backs in a single bound, toes sidelines like he is some kind of high-wire act, catches passes like he has eyes in the back of his head, and for a few hours, made a grieving mother smile.

“Every time Braylon Edwards caught the ball, I yelled and screamed,” Tara Douglas said Sunday, the first time she’s smiled since her 15-year-old baby boy, Denzel, died. “I knew he was doing it for my baby.”

Braylon Edwards isn’t a hero today because he caught two -- more -- touchdown passes Sunday at the Edward Jones Dome. He isn’t a hero today because he caught eight passes, each one of them better than the next, against the St. Louis Rams. He isn’t even a hero today because he made play after superb play to lead the Browns back from a 14-0 first-quarter deficit and to a 27-20 win, the first time Cleveland fans can say winning and streak in the same sentence since 2003.

He is a hero today because for the first time since Friday morning, Tara, a woman you’ve probably never heard of, yelled and screamed in joy even though her heart still felt like it had been trampled by a Ted Washington cleat.

Tara talked to Denzel for the last time Friday morning. The Lakewood High School underclassman died after his body rejected a heart transplant that was 18 months old.

But he died with a piece of Braylon Edwards with him, and him, probably for a long time, with Edwards.

Denzel died with his No. 17 autographed Braylon Edwards’ jersey and one of the game balls from the star receiver’s three-touchdown game against Miami.

On his day off, during his week off from the NFL, Edwards went to the
hospital to meet a young man he didn’t know.

All that he knew was Denzel Douglas was in pain. He could tell by the tubes in his mouth, but not by the twinkle in his eye.

“Denzel couldn’t believe Braylon was standing in front of him in his
hospital bed,” Tara said Sunday. “That made his day.”

As it turned out, it was one of his last.

Denzel Douglas had a profound effect on Edwards. The wide receiver told a Browns employee who helped arrange the meeting, “You didn’t say it would be like this,” even though Edwards was briefed on Douglas’ dire health. It was a meeting that Edwards won’t soon -- if ever -- forget.

He dedicated his eight-catch, 117-yard, two-touchdown performance Sunday in St. Louis to the 15-year-old he barely knew.

So Friday, Tara will bury her son. And she’ll bury him in the No. 17 jersey Edwards brought and signed. The football he autographed will be placed in the casket as well.

“This was definitely an emotional game after meeting him and meeting his family,” Edwards said. “I was hoping he was able to make it through and get to one of these (games). Regardless, I dedicated my performance to him today. I’m glad we got a win, and my prayers go out to his family.”

Here in the cradle of football, we kid ourselves about football, life and
death. They have no business going hand-in-hand. Or maybe, truly, they do.

The three felt so right together Sunday.

So when Browns Head Coach Romeo Crennel tells his football team about fighting, about character and will, Edwards will look at those words with a different perspective.

“Last Sunday, we were sitting on the couch, and (Denzel) said, ‘I’m gonna play football again,” Tara recalled. “He wanted to make something for heart transplant patients to be able to play football. That was his No. 1 sport. He was so competitive.”

And this is where football has something, however small it may be, to do with the Browns on Sunday.

A year ago, Denzel Douglas may not have changed a young, brash and cocky Braylon Edwards. A year ago, the Browns wouldn’t have come back from a 14-point deficit to beat a winless St. Louis team.

They weren’t mature enough. They weren’t smart enough to know what they don’t know. Now they’re smart enough to ignore what they don’t know and just find a way to win football games.

Even before answering a single question after the game, Edwards essentially gave a mea culpa for taking off his helmet during a play. It was Dwayne Rudd all over again, except this time, Cleveland was good enough to overcome a bonehead mistake.

“I assumed the quarter was over,” Edwards said. “... It will never happen again.”

Edwards is so much more mature than he was a year ago. He isn’t whining on the sidelines. He isn’t yelling at teammates.

Generally, Cleveland’s young receiver has a light-hearted disposition. Fans are seeing it for the first time this season.

“In maturing they believe in me now,” Edwards said of his teammates. “They believe in the things I do, and things I say. They believe in the player I am. Believing in guys like myself and Kellen (Winslow Jr.) they play that much harder. It makes them give an extra chip on a play they might not have chipped on and that extra chip allows Derek Anderson an extra second to release the ball.

“This team believes in itself now.”

No one had to convince Denzel Douglas to believe in Braylon Edwards.

He did last week. His mother will attest, too, that when her son died, he died believing in Braylon Edwards.